A Qantas Airways flight from New Zealand landed safely at Sydney airport on Wednesday after the airline said the plane sent an SOS signal due to a problem with one of its engines, Reuters reported.

The Boeing 737-800, which was flying from Auckland, suffered mid-flight engine failure and issued a Mayday call while flying over the sea with an hour to go to its destination in Sydney, a Qantas spokesman said.

The Mayday signal (SOS), which indicates serious and imminent danger, was downgraded to “possible need for assistance” before landing, the spokesman added.

All 145 passengers disembarked safely after the plane touched down in Sydney at around 15:30 local time (06:30 in Romania).

“While in-flight engine shutdowns are rare and naturally cause concern for passengers, our pilots are trained to handle them safely and aircraft are designed to fly on one engine for extended periods of time,” he said.

Passengers told local media that they heard a loud bang during the flight but did not realize there was a problem until the pilot made an announcement after landing.

“I opened my phone and my wife called me 18 times asking, ‘Have you landed, have you landed?'” one passenger told reporters at the airport.

Qantas said it would release more information about the incident once engineers have completed an inspection of the plane.

(article photo: ©Simon Clancy|Dreamstime.com)